The friends of Joe Wilson (updated)

Evidently Joe Wilson began working for Jarch Capital LLC, as Vice Chairman, in January of this year.

I noticed that at the bottom of that link, the corporate announcement was signed by Phil Heilberg, Chairmen Jarch Capital LLC so I googled Phil Heilberg and found this wedding announcement.

The wedding announcement states that Phillipe Heilberg

"is the managing director of the Hong Kong office of AIG International Inc., the foreign exchange and metals trading unit of the American International Group, the insurance and financial services company."

In September 1999, The International Finance Corporation has invested in the largest equity fund ever established for investment in privately-owned infrastructure projects in Africa, the AIG African Infrastructure Fund (AIF).

American International Group, Inc. (AIG), the leading US-based international insurance organization, is the project sponsor and leading co-investor with a commitment of $75 million. As a sponsor of three existing infrastructure funds in emerging markets, AIG already plays a significant role in mobilizing private capital for investments dedicated to infrastructure. Other leading shareholders of AIF are Midroc, the company owned by international investor Sheikh Mohammed Al-Amoudi with $50 million; the African Development Bank with $50 million, Development Bank of Southern Africa with $25 million; and several other international investors and development agencies, including the European Investment Bank and Proparco, which is the private sector arm of Agence Française de Développement of France.

AIG is one of the biggest investors in the world, responsible for placing a relentless stream of capital (totaling in the hundreds of billions of dollars) gushing its way from highly successful insurance operations. AIG bought International Lease Finance Corporation, a huge lessor of airliners, to have a profitable opportunity to invest billions of dollars a year in commercial aircraft, for instance. No company this big lacks connections.

One cannot discuss AIG without mentioning Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg. As of 2005, he no longer has anything to do with AIG, but he built it and his people still run it. Greenberg is a titan of international finance. (See below.)

AIF

As an outlet for investment capital, AIF is small potatoes. But it may lead to extraordinary future profit opportunities while mobilizing capital from sources that do not put profits first. AIF is headed by an AIG career guy, Phillipe Heilberg, who is also a managing director in the Hong Kong office, apparently running a rock and rolling part of the company, metals trading and FX trading. Fast-moving, closely connected to politics, and able to make or lose fabulous sums of money. If he is an old hand in Asia, he may also be familiar with business environments in which the courts and police cannot always be relied upon. And you never know the sort of friends you might make over the years.

AIG used to be headquartered in Hong Kong, where it moved to from Shanghai, until it moved to the United States after growth there altered its center of gravity.

AIF has assembled a package of funds from quite a cast of characters. It's too early to draw conclusions, but Wilson certainly is positioned for interesting opportunities for a connected and famous enemy of the Bush presidency.

A note on Greenberg

Greenberg (also sometimes spelled "Greenburg") rose to the heights among the world's biggest investors by becoming the protégé and successor of Cornelius Vander Starr, an overseas American entrepreneur who built an exceedingly lucrative insurance presence in Asia. Read this admiring Fortune Magazineprofile of Starr in the mid 1930s, as one of the "Men of Shanghai."

Greenberg was sent to the United States to make American insurance operations perform better ion the early 1960s. The rest is history. Using a low overhead sales structure (relying on independent agents who were paid commissions), Greenberg avoided the periodic price wars that drove down his domestic insurance competitors' profits.

When insurance rates were driven to the point where underwriting profits were nil and investment income had to subsidize underwriting losses, Greenberg refused to write insurance at such low prices. His independent agents tightened their belts, wrote less insurance, and got part time jobs at the hardware store. His competitors, meanwhile, with their internal sales forces to pay, kept writing higher volumes of insurance, deducting underwriting losses from investment profits.

As a result, Greenberg was able to earn a better return on his capital. AIG was significantly more profitable than competitors because it didn't lose money on underwriting, so more of its investment profits went to the bottom line. Attach the concept of "better return on capital" to the vast pool of capital found in the world's insurance business, and you have a recipe for growth.

Like Starr before him, Greenberg seems to have been a very smart and shrewd spotter of opportunities, as with his purchase of ILFC.

Greenberg's formal ties to AIG in 2005 were severed by the board on 2005, when New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer began criticizing the company and eventually (according to Wikipedia)

Spitzer filed a complaint against Greenberg, AIG, and Howard I. Smith (ex-CFO of AIG) alleging fraudulent business practice, securities fraud, common law fraud, and other violations of insurance and securities laws. After a subsequent investigation, however, all criminal charges were dropped, and Greenberg was not held responsible for any crimes.

Greenberg is now head of C.V. Starr & Co., Inc., a multi-billion dollar investment company named for his mentor.

JMG should not be confused with an associated but separate New York-based investment vehicle, Jarch Capital, owned and chaired by Phil Heilberg, which signed far-reaching oil and commodity concessions in 2004, just one year after clinching its own exploration rights to Block B.

The only "flexibility" I can think of is the right to bribe. Maybe you can think of something else.

Update: Douglas Hanson writes:

Wilson's connection to Phillipe Heilberg, who is the managing director of the foreign exchange and metals trading unit of AIG makes sense in light of his connections to players in the West African uranium mining and milling industries . Wilson and CIA officer Mary McCarthy, who leaked the story about the system of hidden CIA prisons in Europe, shared interests in the region since she had a position in the African "desk" which was concerned with West African nations producing yellowcake uranium at the same time that Joseph Wilson was working in Gabon and bordering states during the Clinton administration.

As with oil-for-food, trading in a controlled commodity while under UN sanctions and trade restrictions can yield great profit to those who have good knowledge of the market, not to mention those willing to circumvent international controls and establish a lucrative black market.

We know that the CIA's McCarthy worked for Beri, SA, a firm that provides global business estimates and intelligence involving forecasts on extraction and production of oil, gas, and minerals. Knowledge of mineral reserves and stockpiles coupled with advance warning of coalition operations, is potentially a powerful tool for investors looking to gain an edge, working strictly within the law. For example, since Saddam's stockpile of yellowcake was seized, the market price of the milled uranium has skyrocketed to over four times its value prior to OIF.

Evidently Joe Wilson began working for Jarch Capital LLC, as Vice Chairman, in January of this year.

I noticed that at the bottom of that link, the corporate announcement was signed by Phil Heilberg, Chairmen Jarch Capital LLC so I googled Phil Heilberg and found this wedding announcement.

The wedding announcement states that Phillipe Heilberg

"is the managing director of the Hong Kong office of AIG International Inc., the foreign exchange and metals trading unit of the American International Group, the insurance and financial services company."

In September 1999, The International Finance Corporation has invested in the largest equity fund ever established for investment in privately-owned infrastructure projects in Africa, the AIG African Infrastructure Fund (AIF).

American International Group, Inc. (AIG), the leading US-based international insurance organization, is the project sponsor and leading co-investor with a commitment of $75 million. As a sponsor of three existing infrastructure funds in emerging markets, AIG already plays a significant role in mobilizing private capital for investments dedicated to infrastructure. Other leading shareholders of AIF are Midroc, the company owned by international investor Sheikh Mohammed Al-Amoudi with $50 million; the African Development Bank with $50 million, Development Bank of Southern Africa with $25 million; and several other international investors and development agencies, including the European Investment Bank and Proparco, which is the private sector arm of Agence Française de Développement of France.

AIG is one of the biggest investors in the world, responsible for placing a relentless stream of capital (totaling in the hundreds of billions of dollars) gushing its way from highly successful insurance operations. AIG bought International Lease Finance Corporation, a huge lessor of airliners, to have a profitable opportunity to invest billions of dollars a year in commercial aircraft, for instance. No company this big lacks connections.

One cannot discuss AIG without mentioning Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg. As of 2005, he no longer has anything to do with AIG, but he built it and his people still run it. Greenberg is a titan of international finance. (See below.)

AIF

As an outlet for investment capital, AIF is small potatoes. But it may lead to extraordinary future profit opportunities while mobilizing capital from sources that do not put profits first. AIF is headed by an AIG career guy, Phillipe Heilberg, who is also a managing director in the Hong Kong office, apparently running a rock and rolling part of the company, metals trading and FX trading. Fast-moving, closely connected to politics, and able to make or lose fabulous sums of money. If he is an old hand in Asia, he may also be familiar with business environments in which the courts and police cannot always be relied upon. And you never know the sort of friends you might make over the years.

AIG used to be headquartered in Hong Kong, where it moved to from Shanghai, until it moved to the United States after growth there altered its center of gravity.

AIF has assembled a package of funds from quite a cast of characters. It's too early to draw conclusions, but Wilson certainly is positioned for interesting opportunities for a connected and famous enemy of the Bush presidency.

A note on Greenberg

Greenberg (also sometimes spelled "Greenburg") rose to the heights among the world's biggest investors by becoming the protégé and successor of Cornelius Vander Starr, an overseas American entrepreneur who built an exceedingly lucrative insurance presence in Asia. Read this admiring Fortune Magazineprofile of Starr in the mid 1930s, as one of the "Men of Shanghai."

Greenberg was sent to the United States to make American insurance operations perform better ion the early 1960s. The rest is history. Using a low overhead sales structure (relying on independent agents who were paid commissions), Greenberg avoided the periodic price wars that drove down his domestic insurance competitors' profits.

When insurance rates were driven to the point where underwriting profits were nil and investment income had to subsidize underwriting losses, Greenberg refused to write insurance at such low prices. His independent agents tightened their belts, wrote less insurance, and got part time jobs at the hardware store. His competitors, meanwhile, with their internal sales forces to pay, kept writing higher volumes of insurance, deducting underwriting losses from investment profits.

As a result, Greenberg was able to earn a better return on his capital. AIG was significantly more profitable than competitors because it didn't lose money on underwriting, so more of its investment profits went to the bottom line. Attach the concept of "better return on capital" to the vast pool of capital found in the world's insurance business, and you have a recipe for growth.

Like Starr before him, Greenberg seems to have been a very smart and shrewd spotter of opportunities, as with his purchase of ILFC.

Greenberg's formal ties to AIG in 2005 were severed by the board on 2005, when New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer began criticizing the company and eventually (according to Wikipedia)

Spitzer filed a complaint against Greenberg, AIG, and Howard I. Smith (ex-CFO of AIG) alleging fraudulent business practice, securities fraud, common law fraud, and other violations of insurance and securities laws. After a subsequent investigation, however, all criminal charges were dropped, and Greenberg was not held responsible for any crimes.

Greenberg is now head of C.V. Starr & Co., Inc., a multi-billion dollar investment company named for his mentor.

JMG should not be confused with an associated but separate New York-based investment vehicle, Jarch Capital, owned and chaired by Phil Heilberg, which signed far-reaching oil and commodity concessions in 2004, just one year after clinching its own exploration rights to Block B.

The only "flexibility" I can think of is the right to bribe. Maybe you can think of something else.

Update: Douglas Hanson writes:

Wilson's connection to Phillipe Heilberg, who is the managing director of the foreign exchange and metals trading unit of AIG makes sense in light of his connections to players in the West African uranium mining and milling industries . Wilson and CIA officer Mary McCarthy, who leaked the story about the system of hidden CIA prisons in Europe, shared interests in the region since she had a position in the African "desk" which was concerned with West African nations producing yellowcake uranium at the same time that Joseph Wilson was working in Gabon and bordering states during the Clinton administration.

As with oil-for-food, trading in a controlled commodity while under UN sanctions and trade restrictions can yield great profit to those who have good knowledge of the market, not to mention those willing to circumvent international controls and establish a lucrative black market.

We know that the CIA's McCarthy worked for Beri, SA, a firm that provides global business estimates and intelligence involving forecasts on extraction and production of oil, gas, and minerals. Knowledge of mineral reserves and stockpiles coupled with advance warning of coalition operations, is potentially a powerful tool for investors looking to gain an edge, working strictly within the law. For example, since Saddam's stockpile of yellowcake was seized, the market price of the milled uranium has skyrocketed to over four times its value prior to OIF.